Trump Inspects Designs For Border Wall In San Diego

Later, he stopped in at the nearby Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, addressing an often-boisterous crowd - and promoting what he called "the largest military buildup since Ronald Reagan and one of the largest buildups we've ever had in the history of our nation".

His first stop was Otay Mesa, where the president's focus was on the border wall.

He also said "very soon we're going to Mars", adding "you wouldn't even be thinking about it" if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 presidential election.

"If you didn't have a wall system it would be bedlam I imagine".

"I don't think it's really fair how he has the choice to separate us", said Gonzalez, a dual citizen who lives in Tijuana and crosses the border daily to work at a San Diego ramen restaurant. "No wall!" near the San Ysidro border crossing, where tens of thousands of people enter the USA daily from Tijuana, Mexico, many on their way to work or school in San Diego.

During his visit, Trump took aim at so-called "sanctuary cities" in California - local governments that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials seeking to deport illegal immigrants.

The Trump administration seemed stuck on the idea of banning legal immigration as well - in the form of family-based migration and the diversity lottery - and all the bills put forward for a vote in the Senate failed.

The president's speech went on to touch on human trafficking, calling it "the worst that it's ever been", and "sanctuary city" policies. You have 'sanctuary cities, ' where they have criminals living in the sanctuary cities. "No wall!" Protests were also held on the Mexican side, in Tijuana.

His visit also sparked mass protests across San Diego, which has a huge Latin American community.

Ahead of his arrival, the president tweeted that "thousands of risky, violent criminal aliens are released" as a result of California's immigration sanctuary policies.

"This is an environmental catastrophe, on top of a misallocation of government resources that could be used for health care or social services", Cody Petterson, president of the San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, said of the wall.

Trump has long said he wanted to visit the models himself so he can pick a victor, though the Department of Homeland Security says elements of each design are expected to be used.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a public warning from Oakland's mayor helped more than 800 people evade arrest. He'll tour prototypes of a border wall, hoping to project momentum on a project he promised during his campaign but hasn't yet brought to fruition.